So our cooking mini-arc has concluded and I was pretty much… indifferent to it by the end. It started strong last week but seems to run out of steam quickly this episode. For many developments the show squeezes in this week, only the somen contest festival part works out well. The romance part turns out to be quite…dumb, and Yoshino going overboard feel more awkward than funny. To make it even worse, many Sakura Quest’s stronger elements: the solid chemistry between the core cast and the adult wisdom are all absent this week, making this episode a mere passable one, but nothing special to write home about.
After the event last week, Shiori comes up with a plan to make amend with the Merchant Board: a somen contest to choose the signature somen dish for Manoyama. It’s a pretty neat idea for me, albeit the sequence in the restaurant where every local gone nuts about somen feel oversold and incredibly forced. Obaba has a great characterization this week. Yes, she’s harsh and blunt on what she says, but she’s reasonable. As long as your plan makes sense she will be happy to go along with it. It might be the first time in years that the two Boards work on something together and thankfully the festival receives enough enthusiasm from the town’s supports. Shiori has some solid time this week as she tries to come up with a new dish that featured both somen and kombu, two of the town’s favorite material. In the end, her dish isn’t chosen for the best prize, but the warm reception from the villagers towards her dish “Happy Somen” and the acknowledgement from everyone towards her contribution are good enough. But “Minister of Mediation”? haha, I really have no response for that off the wall title, but seeing how she bring the two Boards, as well as the two unlikely lovebirds together, I believe the title has its merit.
Yoshino, during the preparation of the festival, goes completely other way. She and Kadota meet Doku (the local mechanic), to do something ”bold” for the festival, hence the idea of flowing VR somen (that actually run manually by Deku) coming up. It’s silly, and although I feel it has a bit of its charm, seeing Yoshino trying just too hard without any result doesn’t impact to the whole story much. Actually, here’s my one question: Who’s in the committee that decide which somen food’s a winner? Obviously the girls aren’t in there, nor does the Tourist Board or Merchant Board. Then who? On what criteria they choose the food exactly? This WAS what they need to develop, instead of spending some time for this Yoshino’s silly plot line.
But it’s the romance between Kumano and Shiori’s sister that suffer the hardest. That’s coming from me who actually enjoy the running gags of everyone surprised that Kumano has an interest for Sayuri instead of Shiori, but boy, this whole plotline is just bad. First, Kumano and Sayuri share no chemistry whatsoever. When they meet again and talk to each other, it sounds even less intimate than two normal friends. They all mention that they were too shy to talk to each other back in college, but from their little flashback it wasn’t the case at all: sharing the love for French Toast and waited for each other until night alone in train station? It doesn’t add up at all. And then the reason that they couldn’t meet each other? Because Sayuri took the wrong date from previous year’s calendar? Forgive me if I’m being so blunt, but how is that even possible? They had a firm idea to meet each other on the Sunday after graduation on that station; so after graduation, they just have to show up on THE SUNDAY, the wrong date got nothing to do with it. If it meant to be cute, it doesn’t, it’s just dumb. This arc unfortunately isn’t Sakura Quest’s best hours. Well, at least now this cooking arc is over and I’m looking forward to what the hell they come up with for the Tourism Board next time, and by the pattern it might be the time for my favorite girl Ririko to shine. Bring it on, girls.
